De Blasio and Family Land in Rome, and the Cameras Start Snapping

Bill de Blasio at the Capitoline Museums in Rome on Sunday during a nearly 10-day trip. Behind him, his son, Dante, and daughter, Chiara, with Ignazio Marino, the mayor of Rome.Credit
Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

ROME — Mayor Bill de Blasio was having a paparazzi moment.

Emerging on Sunday onto the Piazza del Campidoglio, this ancient city’s municipal center, Mr. de Blasio and his family found themselves swarmed by a phalanx of Italian journalists, pressed up against the chauffeured Mercedes van that is serving as their convoy on a nearly 10-day jaunt around Italy.

Aides struggled to hold back the horde as Mr. de Blasio was hugged by his Roman counterpart, Mayor Ignazio Marino, and photographers’ shouts of “Dante!” filled the plaza. (In a rerun of last year’s mayoral race, Mr. de Blasio’s teenage son, with his Afro, is quickly becoming a star here.) Dozens of tourists gathered to gawk.

“I thought it was the Italian soccer team for a second,” said Nicolas Verconich, a visitor from Toronto, as he observed the spectacle surrounding the de Blasios. “So the tall guy was the mayor of New York, then, right?” he asked.

The early hours of a vacation can be a wearying transition from work to play. The early hours of Mr. de Blasio’s vacation were a whirlwind, public relations-conscious blend of the two.

There was even a costume change: For his meeting with Mr. Marino, the mayor traded his air travel outfit of New Balance shoes and a five o’clock shadow for a flannel suit and freshly shaved cheeks.

Mr. de Blasio, a gifted wielder of political imagery, is already seeing dividends from the trip. A phrase bounced around the Italian journalists gathered at Fiumicino Airport for his arrival: “the cool mayor.” The group was impressed by Mr. de Blasio’s willingness to load his own baggage into his van, a rare sight in a nation where corruption scandals have exposed an entitled side of elected leaders.

Still, some City Hall formalities accompanied the mayor. Members of Mr. de Blasio’s police detail were standing watch, albeit in tropical shirt sleeves rather than the usual dark suits. Italian officers guarded the mayor at the airport, and he is traveling with a police escort, lights flashing.

Photo

Mr. de Blasio, right, with Mr. Marino before a news conference at the Capitoline Museums in Rome on Sunday.Credit
Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

Mr. de Blasio, who has brought his press secretary and two other aides along, was eager to keep attention focused where he wanted it, and away from the trappings of international travel. His press team would not divulge the name of the hotel where the mayor and his family are staying, and said it did not know where he dined with distant relatives on Sunday evening.

Asked by reporters about an aperitivo that was supposed to be served in the Roman mayor’s office, Mr. de Blasio replied in Italian, “Acqua minerale solamente” — mineral water only. He added, with a touch of reproach, “It’s less about what was served, and more about the ideas that were served.”

Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Marino, a surgeon who lived for years in Pennsylvania, had a friendly rapport, smiling at each other throughout a half-hour news conference. Both men are left-leaning reformers, and Mr. Marino has his own touch of de Blasio-style populism, riding a bicycle to work many days. “In everything we talked about — income inequality, immigration, sanitation, mass transit — we were speaking the same language,” Mr. de Blasio said.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Some of the highest praise from Mr. Marino, though, involved New York City’s waste management reforms from 14 years ago — an effort spearheaded by a deputy mayor at the time named Joseph J. Lhota, who was Mr. de Blasio’s Republican opponent in last year’s election.

Mr. de Blasio was asked twice on Sunday about the suggestion that his trip was too long by mayoral standards. Told that Italians had scoffed at the notion, Mr. de Blasio delivered his riposte with relish: “We have a lot to learn from the Italians.” He added: “I think time with family is crucial and precious in life, and in the last couple years that’s been hard to come by.”

The mayor and his family made a similar trip to Italy in 2010, although that one did not include the ceremonial touches they enjoyed on Sunday. At the Roman mayor’s office, they stepped onto a balcony with a grand view of the Roman Forum and waved at a group of cheering onlookers gathered below.

“It’s a working vacation on many levels,” Mr. de Blasio said later. “But it’s a source of energy and inspiration, as well.”

The mayor’s wife, Chirlane McCray, and their children, Dante and Chiara, appeared to be enjoying themselves, although there was one topic that suggested some distance between father and kin. Asked how he had fared on an eight-hour trip in a coach seat, Mr. de Blasio said he had been surprisingly comfortable on the Delta Air Lines flight, his 6-foot-6 frame aside.

“I give our European competitors at Airbus credit,” the mayor quipped. Behind him, Dante, whose legs are nearly as long as his father’s, smiled and silently, but strenuously, shook his head. He had barely slept on the flight.

Correction: July 20, 2014
An earlier version of this article described incorrectly a jersey worn by Chiara de Blasio, the mayor’s daughter, when she arrived in Rome. It was a jersey in the colors of a popular Italian basketball team, not a soccer jersey in Azzurri blue, the color of the country’s national team.

A version of this article appears in print on July 21, 2014, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: De Blasio and Family Land in Rome, and the Cameras Start Snapping. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe